Tag Archives: Audiences

With 4 billions video views per day on the immensely popular website YouTube, why not try your luck in becoming a YouTube sensation by starting your own vlog, ranging from instruction videos and strumming some notes on the guitar in the hope to get noticed by Usher and become the next Justin Bieber. Although there is a catch YouTube has 1 billion users. So you’ll have to stand out from the rest.

Vlogging on YouTube has skyrocketed into popularity especially within the instruction video sector. Anything from cooking tutorials, to online gaming tips and makeup tutorials are available at your fingertips. You just have to find a vlog that ticks all the boxes for you. YouTube videos allow viewers to comment on the video and ask questions and to make comments about how to improve video and request topics that they want to be covered. This provides the creator of the videos an insight into the activity, wants and needs of the videos.

A screenshot from Loz Curtis’s beauty blogging site. This is a viewer commenting on the video and asking her to do a video on another topic.

YouTube vlogging allows a niche market of people to express their interests and discussing ideas with like minded people, producing a video that appeals to the niche market allows one to be successful in that certain sector. It is surprising how many people follow certain blogs that one would find a very rare interest.

Vlogging allows individuals to express their own interest within modern society, YouTube has dramatically enhanced the power of self-expression and a way to connect a individuals with shared interests from all over the globe. The power of 21st century technology has allowed people to connect and share and vlogging is a further extension of this, It connects individuals with a shared interest together. Another example of the variety of vlogs available to viewers is seen within YouTubes structure, YouTube selects the most popular videos and categories it which allows you to view popular videos on your chosen interest. An example of this is the gaming sector of the Youtube, which is being constantly being updated by people all over the world. Vlogging allows individuals to connect across the globe in shared niche interests, it creates a connection.

With the introduction on various media platforms its allows one to gain access to breaking news in various. Long gone are the days of Brian Henderson‘s face on our TV’s on National Nine News at 6pm. As as 90’s child I remember gathering around the TV, just excited to be in front of the glorious box of flashing images with the sound of my father commenting on John Howard’s latest political move. How the times have changed, it is now once in a blue moon for more than one family member in my household would be in front of the TV at 6pm watching the nightly news. The demand is no longer there, why crowd around the TV to listen to news you’ve already been updated on all day when you can look on Facebook and browse various articles, scroll through on Twitter and Instagram or go browse news sites through out the day.

Brian Henderson – National Nine News. Image taken from 2GB.com.au

Digital media has opened up the flood gate to the 24 hour news cycle, it allows one to be updated constantly on the #411. James Webster and Thomas Ksiazek’s reading ‘The Dynamics of Audience Fragmentation’ introduces the idea of “on-demand” patterns of consumption through the overlapping of media consumption. I understand this article to touch on how we gain our news from various different platforms now compared to 10 years ago when the nightly news and print media was king.

We really are spoilt for choice when it comes to being updated on the news from around the world, from updates on the Nepal Earthquake to the nervous wait of Princess Kate’s over due royal baby. Social media platforms allow us to engage in various sites to gain access to trending stories. Facebook, Twitter, News Websites and Apps and even Instagram are the new gate way to keeping updated on whats going on in the world.

Screenshot of Breaking News site on TwitterScreenshot from Seven News FacebookScreenshot from Kyle and Jackie O’s Instagram

The internet has changed how we interact with the world around us, this includes the news that we create that spreads across the globe. The traditional media platform of newspapers has now been overtaken by the 24 hour news cycle which is provided by internet news sites and television channels such as CNN and World News. A research paper by the company Ofcom, researched the news consumption within the UK across four main platforms; television, radio, print and online. The research paper states that within the UK 95% of people say they follow the news, and television was by far the most used platform to access the news. The platform that had increased the most was that of the use of any internet or apps used to access the news, this was a leap from 35% in 2013 going up to 41% in 2014. Newspapers were used by four in ten people (40%) which was the same as 2013. Although the use of newspapers have not decreased within this study the use of the internet and apps in accessing the news have risen significantly.

The introduction of social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have a much wider reach compared to traditional print media, due to its accessibility and its ability to be accessed while on the go. The introduction of the use of mobile devices and tablets in the public sphere has changed the way the population not only interactive with each other but how they interact with events around the world. The internet has the power to provide breaking news as soon as possible as well as continuous updates where as the traditional newspaper is only printed once a day which leaves itself open to missing a story or development.